Play, Learn & Donate

Do you think word games are fun? Do you wish to be more articulate? Are you always after enhancing your vocabulary? Are you interested in providing a meal to a hungry person somewhere in this world? Do you simply have a lot of free time?

If your answer is yes, then FreeRice.com is what you're looking for. This online initivate was launched by UN World Food Program in a creative attempt to reduce world hunger and provide rice for those who need it the most.

The rule is simple; with every correct answer, you donate 20 grains of rice to the UN WFP. Now you might be wondering, if they already have the rice, why don't they just give it away?

FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 20 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.

So basically, no ads, no rice.

Go ahead and enjoy the game. And remember, that while you're having fun and improving your vocabulary, a starving person somewhere is provided with food.

As of 30th March 2008, the FreeRice has donated 24,678,910,210 grains of rice.

WARNING: I can't be held responsible in case you grow insidiously addicted to the game.

Ramadan Kareem

" O Allah, You are our Helper, and You are our Victor, and You are sufficient for us, and the best guardian.

O Allah You are the Truth, Your Promise is True, Your Speech is True, Your Meeting is True, Paradise is True, the Hellfire is True, the Hour is True, the Prophets are True and Muhammad (PBUH) is True.

There is no God worthy of worship but You, Glory be to You,Truly we have been of the wrongdoers.

O Allah, to You have we submitted our souls, in You have we believed, upon You have we relied, for You have we argued, to You have we taken our judgement, so forgive us all that we have done and what we have not done, what we have hidden and what we have disclosed. You are the Promoter, and You are the Delayer, there is no God but You.

We seek refuge in the Light of Your Face for which darknesses shine, and with which the affairs of this life and the Hereafter become good, from Your anger or displeasure fall upon us. You have the right to admonish until You are pleased, and there is no power and no might except in You.

O Allah, Grant us Heaven and save us from Hellfire."

Amin.

The Shunned Hazaras

Under the anciently fixed gaze of the Buddhas, and particularly in the stunning region of Hazarajat, lived the Afghan Hazara tribes for centuries and centuries. Easily distinguished by their pure Asiatic features, in addition to belonging to the Shiite sect of Islam, the Hazaras have perpetually suffered extreme discrimination and oppression, especially during the Taliban era. Before the 19th century, the Hazaras have constituted more than 67% of Afghan population. However, today they are only 9% of Afghanistan’s 25 million people due to the massacre in 1893 in which half of the Hazaras were heartlessly murdered.

In Bamyan, the capital city of Hazarajat (or Hazarestan), the Hazaras carefully looked after their precious cultural heritage for many generations. The grand human civilization of Buddhism, demonstrated in two of the world’s tallest & ancient statues, has continuously attracted Buddhist pilgrims worldwide. Being Shiite Muslims, as well as the caretakers of Bamyan’s valuable cultural site (which the Taliban considered to be "idolatrous"), the Hazaras weren’t only referred to by the Taliban as infidels, but have also endured extreme prejudice and subjugation during the ruling era of the extremist Pashtuns. In May 2, 2001 the Taliban have set up explosives in the ancient Buddhas, completely obliterating the 2000-year-old monumental Buddha statues and flattening them to the ground. It was an unjustifiable barbaric crime against history that has left the Hazaras with nothing but rocks and sand remaining of their once ancient cultural heritage.

Taliban weren’t the only oppressors of the Hazaras, though. Hardliner Pashtun leaders have tortured the Hazaras throughout the history of Afghanistan. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Hazaras have suffered severe political, social and economic discrimination under brutal governors such as Emir Abdur Rahman Khan and his successor Habibullah Khan. Suffering from public executions, exiles, ethnic cleansing, village burnings, displacement, confiscation of lands, enslavement of women and children, unnecessary taxes as well as horrifying massacres, the Hazaras have also experienced religious repression and were forced to join Sunni Islam and abandon Shiism. Uzbeks, on the other hand, are believed to have performed slave raids on the Hazaras as well.

The Hazarajat is the most underdeveloped region of Afghanistan. It has always been neglected by the Afghan rulers and left with no serious efforts of economic or educational development. Hazaras mainly work in herding sheep while literacy rates are shockingly low especially among women. "The Hazaras were always economically weak and politically excluded," says Qasim Aghar, a Hazara intellectual and educator. "We were separated by religion and geography. No one ever even tried to build a road to Hazarajat."

Hazaras still struggle and hope of a better future including a political control in their home town, better economic and educational opportunities and mostly freedom of religion. Alexander Burnes, a 19th century traveler, once wrote describing the heartrending life of the Hazaras: “They are oppressed by all the neighbouring nations, whom they serve as hewers of wood and drawers of water. All the drudgery and work in Kabul is done by Hazaras.”

Have a Rat!

The rising food prices have recently become a global dilemma. This Tsunami of inflation has left the poor and the hungry in some sort of a collective starvation. While this worldwide crisis has fallen on some governments' deaf ears, India, on the other hand, has found its own method to combat the high food prices.

As the food prices (such as rice) go high, Indian people are highly encouraged to eat rats "in an effort to battle soaring food prices and save grain stocks." And if you're still wondering, NO this is not a joke!

"Eating of rats will serve twin purposes -- it will save grains from being eaten away by rats and will simultaneously increase our grain stock," Vijay Prakash, an official from the state's welfare department, told Reuters.

Officials say almost 50 percent of India's food grains stocks are eaten away by rodents in fields or warehouses.

Who knew that rats were the solution to the increasingly-high food prices?

Bonne appetite, everyone!

Masculine Tears

I’ve always found it somehow too complicated for me to understand why men usually tend to avoid crying (especially in public) and hold back their tears. Admittedly, and unlike women, men are usually taught, from an early age, that crying is a girly thing, that tears were meant to fall on the softer cheeks, that men simply don’t cry and accordingly they’re trained not to break into tears in front of others. Growing up with that conviction, men would most likely claim that crying is a sign of vulnerability, an undesired human need; something they intentionally avoid, throughout the course of their lives, in order to preserve their image of mighty manliness.

On the day my uncle died few years back, I kept attentively observing my father, almost feeling the intensity of his grief in the air around me and hoping to see him drop a tear or two over his brother’s death that I thought might help provide him with at least some comfort. But my hopes were shattered every time I looked at him strongly pulling himself together. However, and on that same night, after everyone was gone, I ran accidently into my father, sitting alone in a dim-lighted room, his hands covering his face and a horrifying sound of weeping seemed to shake my world. I, carefully, walked out of that room surprisingly smiling and relieved that my father has finally surrendered to his inner, irresistible urge to cry, and accordingly found some relief through it.

Just last week, on the other hand, I was in a hospital’s waiting area. As I was tediously waiting for my name to be called, a lady with her two children sat next to me. I couldn’t help but to notice the way she furiously scolded her almost five-year-old son every time the poor child cried out loud. Despite the irritated mother’s several attempts, the young boy was annoyingly crying non-stop. Then, as soon as the mother spelled out the magic words; "dear, men don’t cry! Don’t you already know that? You’re a MAN. Only girls cry” and peace finally found its way back into the room.

Whatever be the reason, we all know men just can’t cry (or at least not in front of others). But surely they do cry, probably not to the world, but behind closed doors, to themselves. However, the question remains, why men are burdened to meet the social or cultural expectations by being ‘tough as a rock’? Why men are supposed to shield themselves against all human emotions and avoid those transparent drops to fall down their faces? Why the teary eyes are a source of unforgivable disgrace according to the incomprehensible laws of men’s world? And why men strongly believe that “one who cries is not a man” ?

Three Cups of Tea

I can only think of adjectives like “captivating” & “inspiring” to describe this book. The phenomenal and remarkable tale of Greg Mortenson’s mission to promote peace and empower education is simply fascinating. Three Cups of Tea is all about one ordinary man and his noble, peaceful endeavor & admirable determination to overcome differences and accordingly change the world.

Greg Mortenson, a passionate mountaineer, fails to climb K2- the world’s second tallest mountain- in Pakistan and is later found ill and almost dying by the people of the Pakistani village of Korphe. Accordingly, Mortenson is received with overwhelming generosity by the impoverished village and is sheltered and nursed for several weeks. Mortenson, overwhelmed by the locals’ kindness and endless support, promises to come back, return the favor and build a school for the children of the village. The project becomes the corner stone of the establishment of Central Asia Institute (CAI) and is the first of a series of more than 50 schools which were constructed across Pakistan and Afghanistan in over a decade.

Mortenson’s humanitarian campaign is derived from his profound belief in peace and the power of education. In a place of gender segregation, of social and religious extremism, girls’ education is simply not allowed. However, Mortenson envisions a better future to that part of the world through the empowerment of young women. Those girls will certainly instill the importance of learning and intellectual freedom in the coming generations.

The eloquent and uplifting Three Cups of Tea is all about patience, generosity, overcoming obstacles, and keeping promises. But above all, it is a solid proof that one man can actually make a difference in the world.

* The book’s title “Three Cups of Tea” is directly derived from a traditional custom of greeting visitors in Pakistan. Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief further describes the tradition: “Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business: the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything- even die.”